Watching: So you think you can dance

I've never entirely understood dance - I mean, obviously with my innate poise and style I'm awesome at it but I guess I've never really seen what all the fuss was.

This is why I was a little surprised to find myself hooked in to So You Think You Can Dance last night when the PC decided to watch it over Inspector Rex.

It's a slickly put together programme that takes that whole art-as-competitive-sport reality show thing and showcases some pretty impressive moves (sadly to some pretty mediocre mainstream music).

Nothing is left to drag on for too long and by mixing up the styles (quite a few of them I couldn't tell the difference between though) they keep the show moving at a brisk trot. Most importantly it manages to avoid that classical reality show filler tactic of telling you what's about to happen, what's happening and what just happened for each event.

None of the personalities (judges or dancers) were overly annoying or prattish - I seem to be praising it here for not being crap, so I guess it's not a ringing endorsement but in short, it wasn't bad. I wouldn't say I'd rush to watch it again but it was ok.

(I'd put a youtube clip up but the producers of the show seem to be pretty quick off the mark in getting them taken down)

Watching: (Shaun Micallef's) Newstopia

I mentioned last week that I was excited about this show coming up and now that I've seen the first episode, I'm still excited.

I'm a believer that you need to give any new show a grace period of a couple of episodes to find its feet - and when you're dealing with a show that is heavily reliant on the news events of the week you could probably even give it a little longer.

The good news is that Newstopia is pretty well up to speed already - there were a few bumps and jitters - Micallef didn't seem 100% at home just yet and some of the pacing was a tiny bit off - but seriously, this is all stuff that comes with practice. When it was good it was very very good and when it was bad it was still ok.

There's nothing up on YouTube just yet but you can watch the full episode (minus the ads, which is nice) here on the SBS website.

A few of the highlights - off the top of my head - were:

• making the connection that Wallabies is a cross between wallies and wannabes


• an interview with an ACTU rep who interrupted the first question with her answer and then proceeded into a spectacular asking yourself the question then answering it then asking yourself another question then answering it etc monologue that is becoming a popular media tactic these days (made famous by Donald Rumsfeld)


• a 3way interview where the Liberal and Labor party reps frantically searched for reasons why they are the underdogs in the upcoming election, most of the points revolving around how good the other side are


• a trick sbs drama promo - first one into the "ad break" that turned out to be Inspector Herring (hopefully they won't over-milk this gag)


• and a good swag of Kevin Andrews Sudan stuff

(Might have to take another look as there was a lot more to it - including the usual Micallef shattering the fourth wall stuff)

Just for a taster, here's the promo

Touring: The Lodge

Once a year the Australiana fund runs tours of the two Canberra homes of our nominal leaders - the Prime Minister (the Lodge) and the Governor General (Government House)

I travel past the Lodge on the way to work every day so the opportunity to take a peek past the normally high walls and guarded gates was too great a temptation to resist.

Like most special events in the Can', there was a big old line of people waiting to get in and after a little to'ing and fro'ing with the PC (I had an assignment to work on), we decided to stick around. After an hour in line (most of which was spent in the grounds, so there was still gardens and whatnot to look at), we made it in.

Unfortunately there was a ban on photos inside but I was still able to snap off some shots around the place. A few highlights for me were:



the oddly shaped cushiony looking hedges outside,



the very ugly and militaristic looking sculpture that John and Janette chose for the garden



the 1960s municipal park looking water bubbler outside the tennis court



the slightly incongruous basketball/netball hoop bolted to a gum tree



and my personal favourite, the sign outside the door banning, among other things - child stollers. Is this a reference to the stollen generation perhaps? Maybe the Howard government is actually opposed to the practice of child stolling after all?

Here's the full slide show of the outside part.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

As for the inside, it very much had the look of a 1920's kind of house - high ceilings, wood all over the place - I read somewhere that it's done in American Colonial style (which seems sadly appropriate). There were a lot of Australian historical knicknacks from the last 100 years or so and some nice antiques.

The upstairs part was blocked off and guarded - which was disappointing as who doesn't want to see what John and Janette get up to rumpy-pumpy - so it was pretty much just the entrance hall, dining room and a couple of lounge rooms.

Interestingly, there were photos of John Howard and (actual) world leaders all over the shop - which had a slight sad/desperate air of "look at me" about them. He looked particularly excited in an older one with Margaret Thatcher. (His idol and fellow hater of society). I think I saw the missus tucked away in maybe two out of a couple of dozen and there may have been one or two of the Howard spawn as well. But there really were a LOT of pix of Johnny and world leaders. Makes you wonder what kind of pix are up in the "official" residence at Kirribilli.

If you're in town when this rolls around next year, it's worth a look.

Making: a game about how to play games

My housemate Eric would probably tell you that I'm the least qualified person to tell anyone how to play games - but he's a stinkin, cheating, smug Frenchy bastard :) who I will one day beat at Fifa World Cup 2006.

But anyway, this is a training level that I'm working on for the Exploring the EDC game I've mentioned before.



I'm making it as simple as I can because one of the things I've found with using these kinds of games with some of the uh more senior people at work is that they have never played a 3D game and find the whole experience pretty confusing. When you think about it, there is a degree of coordination needed to navigate 3D space by combining movement with the keyboard and camera control with the mouse.

If you're interested, you can read the full design statement with all the educational theorising and such over here at my edublog.

As ever, it's built using FPS Creator, which inspite some bugginess and dubious advice from people posting on the boards, is a very nifty tool.

Reading: Crazy guy on a bike stories

The PC and I are planning a cycling holiday around France next year (or from France to Spain or France to Belgium - basically France will be involved in some way anyway) so it seemed like a good idea to look at where others have been before us.



This is where Crazyguyonabike.com comes into things. Crazy guy on a bike has been going for around 7 years and contains nearly 2000 journals that people have kept on cycling road trips in a range of places around the world.

I've never been to Europe (or been much of a traveller since I hit 18 for that matter) but I've always felt that to get a good idea of a place you need to do more than just hit the designated tourist hotspots. Ideally it would involve living in a place for a while but obviously that's not always an option so the thought of getting the full panoramic slow-motion perspective of the countryside and small towns seems like a pretty good alternative.

One of the stories I've been really enjoying has been that of an American guy called Stuart Rosner, who took a 5000+ km scenic route from Charles De Gaulle Airport to Paris over 60 days.



Clearly, we're not looking at quite such a degree of madness but are looking at spending a good 3 - 4 weeks roaming around and given that this guy has made it to a fair part of the country, his adventures are informative. Lots of pics as well, which is nice.

I'd really like to figure out a way to video the ride (from the rider's perspective) - I've done a little bike videoing before which has generally involved a fair degree of gaffer tape and a camcorder but think there is probably a better way - possibly a helmet mounted lipstick camera of some description.

Of course, I also have another plan to do a fair part of the ride (or at least take a series of photos) wearing one of those stripey navy blue and white tshirts with a beret and a string of onions around my neck. (and a big baguette in a front basket).
The PC isn't so excited about this plan.

(I should mention that the pictures came from Stuart's journal on the site - the dark road is on the way to Vezelay)

Watching: Web 2.0 - the machine is us/ing us

My mate Jerry reminded me about this video the other day - it's a pretty clever examination of how the internet (and the way we use it) is reshaping our society, hopefully for the better. (Of course, this is unless SkyNet decides to use all this information for nefarious purposes :)

Hope you have a great weekend, the Lodge (official residence of the Oz Prime Miniature) is having an open day on Sunday so hopefully I'll be able to share something about that next week - not sure what their policy is on cameras though. (Just wish I'd thought to order a Kevin 07 tshirt before now)

Looking forward to: Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian

I know virtually nothing about this movie as a result of this trailer but I want to see it.

Looking forward to: Shaun Micallef's Newstopia

Shaun Micallef is a bit of a hero of mine - brilliant and hilarious and seemingly a genuinely decent person, he's been doing tv comedy in various capacities in Australia for more than 10 years.



This is why I was pretty happy this morning to read that he has a new news satire/review programme starting on SBS next Wednesday called Newstopia. The prospect of Micallef in some kind of Jon (The Daily Show) Stewart role gets the mind a-boggling.

There's a pretty decent interview with him about it in The Age today - here are a couple of quotes of note:
Firstly about the show -

Enter Newstopia. Screening every Wednesday after Anton Enus' World News Australia, the half-hour satire will take aim at politicians and other bigwigs, and at the way we see ourselves on the world stage. Are we part of Asia? The 51st state of the US? Or do we still cling to the apron strings of Mother England?

"The conceit of the show is that Australia is the best possible place to judge the rest of the world because we have no control over it," Micallef says. "But we're desperately concerned about what the neighbours think of us."

His thoughts on John Howard (Oz Prime Minister, not his Seachange co-star) are an indicator of his insight:

"I've met him a couple of times and found him to be a man of enormous charm," he says. "His greatest strength is that everyone seemed to underestimate him. You can see how Kerry O'Brien's attitude towards him has changed over the past 10 years. He's getting on quite well with Howard now and even having a laugh. He understands he'll never break down that impenetrable wall. But if you get a crack, you've scored a point."

Not that he endorses Howard's spin-laden sound bites. "He's extremely conscious of how his words will read in the paper the next day. It's like he's always got one eye on that history book, on that series of biographies, which is not a great way to live. He's like a dad who watches his kids play through the viewfinder of a Handycam instead of engaging in the moment. But he's survived as a politician partly because he is so careful."

His work on his ABC programme - The Micallef Program is probably his best, here are just a couple of examples if you're wondering what the fuss is about

Updating: Day 107 of the No Shampoo challenge

It's been a little while since I've updated my progress on the no-shampoo front but I'm happy to report that things are still going well. It's still thick and shiny, soft and healthy and I'm assured it doesn't smell. I've also found that it seems to get itchy less than when I was using shampoo.



I rinse it thoroughly each day and try to give it a good brush most days as well - I've been bike riding a fair bit more recently too and this doesn't seem to be making a difference.

In other news, the PC tried valiantly for something like 8 or 9 weeks before packing it in - she has longer hair and it just wasn't coming good. So I guess it's not for everyone but it's definitely at least worth a go.

Enjoying: Raymond Crowe's shadow puppetry

Sometimes the simplest forms of entertainment are the most effective - this is a beautiful video by Raymond Crowe, a guy who calls himself Australia's only unusualist.

Nice, different, unusual.

Playing: songs for Monday Sunset

Like the 309 Johnny Cash 4:35 American V: A Hundred Highways
Jealous Girls The Gossip 3:39 Standing In The Way Of Control
Rosa The Devastations 5:10 Yes, U
Dream In Color Grant-Lee Phillips 4:26 Strangelet
Perfectly Ordinary Rastawookie 4:01 Perfectly Ordinary
Binary Love The Rakes 3:45 Capture/Release
Apple Blossom The White Stripes 2:13 De Stijl
Troubled in mind Konrad Lenz 2:20 Living with the spirits of the dead
Swampland Scientists 4:10 Blood Red River
Young folks Peter Bjorn And John 4:39 Writers block
I love my leather jacket The Chills 2:54 Topless women talk about their lives
The Ship Song Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 5:14 The Good Son
If Looks Could Kill Camera Obscura 3:29 Let's Get Out Of This Country
The Beast I Came To Be Beasts Of Bourbon 2:14 Little Animals
In Front of Me Tzu 3:37 Smiling At Strangers
Indecise Coralie Clement 2:35 So Frenchy, So Chic (Disc 2)
Jolene Dolly Parton 2:41 The Very Best Of
Black, White And Dead Zombie Ghost Train 2:51 Glad Rags & Body Bags
Chinito Chinito Ry Cooder 4:52 Chavez Ravine
Being Followed Rocket Science 3:53 Being Followed
Fuzzy Grant Lee Buffalo 4:59 Fuzzy

Enjoying: the labour day long weekend

Hope you are too (if you're having it)

Attending: Scientific Lense opening

A workmate of the PC had some photos in a new show that opened at PhotoAccess last night so we cruised along to check it out.

The show combines work from five scientists and is intended to show that even though science and art generally aren't spoken of in the same breath, the extensive use of photography in science can result in some particularly beautiful/interesting art.

There was a fair bit of variety in the work, some was was impressive and other images were a little average and felt like filler. Putting the photos into an art space brings some expectations I guess and given the explosion of images that you get at your fingertips now through Flickr and the ilk, you expect to see something extra special if it's stuck up on a wall in a gallery. I did particularly like a number of the turtle (tortoise?) pics though.



It's well worth a look if you like science, nature or just photography in general.

Reading: Nerds gone wild

Nerds gone wild! is a pretty cool zine from Melbourne that comes out sporadically in comic book shops and other such places and features a great range of commentary and reviews.

Unsurprisingly, it focuses on geekdom, with feature articles so far including:

• If nerds are cool now, why aren’t I, Mum?


• William Shatner: ham bites back


• Scrabble geeks and grandmasters


• Windows Vista: all right or just a piss-weak OS X?


• The Orcs in society post-LotR


• Angel: if he’s immortal, why does he get fatter?


• The complete guide to pretending you always loved Doctor Who


• Obsessed nerd tells all: TV satellite hacking and my life


• Jesus was basically and X-Man


• Snowy versus Brain: dog challenge


• Astroboy: why I always liked his sister better


• Magicians: the first nerds?


• The Sexiest Nerds Alive


• Hallmark Attacks


• Complete guide to LAN parties: dos and don’ts


• Gingertrek Men: high-fat LAN snack recipes


• Operation McFly


• R2D2 versus Everything


• Why it’s fun to hate Sony!


• Special guest writer: Daniel Kitson

Best of all, previous issues are available as freely downloadable PDFs.

Bless their nerdy hearts.

There's also a discussion board there but it's a little underpopulated at the moment

One thing about the Nerds Gone Wild! title is that it always reminds me of the Girls Gone Wild series of videos, best explained by this great clip from Curb Your Enthusiasm:

LOLing: uh LOLCATS slide show

Found this on myPlick slideshow sharing site - enjoy

LOLing (and Supporting): the GetUp Govt climate change ad parody

GetUp! is an Australian activist organisation that uses the web really well to campaign on a huge range of issues. These lean toward the left (which suits me just fine) but GetUp! isn't aligned to any particular party. It has board members from community organisations alongside people from big business.

Their latest effort is a parody of the governments multi-million dollar ad campaign to greenwash their ongoing hopelessness in dealing with environmental issues.

Here's an example of one of the govt ads



(Funnily enough, the Dept of the Environment appears to have blocked commenting on this video - which stopped me from posting the link to the GetUp! version)

GetUp! is looking to run their interpretation of this during the AFL Grand Final this coming weekend. I couldn't embed their version (I guess they want everyone to view it directly through their site) but here are a couple of stills and you can watch the whole thing at https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateCleverer&id=126 (and donate too, if you're of a mind) (Couchmedia put in $50)





It's a little hard to see but the lab girl is cleaning the coal in the clean-coal shot with a brush.

(Don't get me started on this clean coal bollocks - it's essentially just the process of reducing the polluting effects of the worst form of coal to the second worst and is regarded by virtually everyone without a financial or political stake in coal as a total misnomer. Interestingly, when you search Wikipedia for Greenwash, clean coal comes up as the second top term in the search list)

As far as the ad plan goes, I'm actually a little surprised though that there are any slots available, I would have thought that they would be booked up weeks or even months in advance - maybe they already booked it and now have to pay for it?

Anyway, good on them for the idea, it's a great ad. (Just a shame they aren't prepared to make it web-publishable)

KEWLing: Croquet - the virtual world

At times I wish that technology would just sit still for a minute - I'm just catching up to Second Life and its possibilities when along comes this video for Croquet (an open source virtual world system) that seems to do a dozen things that SL is missing.

(Mainly the ability to browse the internet from inside the game but also a few other things)

Seriously,watch the video, it's so worth the five minutes.

Watching: the world clock

The PC sent me a link to this site (http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf) which offers a little perspective on the world.

If you click on the Now button, you can see (statistically at least) a whole bunch of the crap things that are happening in the world (but at least, presumably, not to you)

Watch those barrels of oil flow - nice to see at least that more bicycles are being made than cars.

Baking: Choc-chip cornflake bikkies

Had a good day in the kitchen yesterday after helping the PC move in on Saturday - a good solid clean and organise of the cupboards and all the pots and pans and assorted plastic containers. (Oh yes, the fun never stops in the Flanders house).

One of the things we came across was a bag of slightly old choc-bits (but really, does chocolate every really go off?) and so in saying that they were fine I pretty well set myself up to prove it and the great bikkie challenge was on.



They turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Thanks for the recipe PC and the advice. (Beating butter and sugar together is more complex than you'd think :)


250g Butter
1 cups caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
As many choc bits as you want (I put in about 150g)
2 cups self raising flour
5 and 1/2 cups cornflakes

Beat the butter and sugar together
Add the vanilla essence and eggs and beat until fluffy

Add the flour and mix it in well with your hands
Add the choc bits and cornflakes (don't crush up the cornflakes too much)

Bake on a greased tray at 180C for 20 mins.

This made about 25 biscuits (some might call them cookies)

Watching: Radiohead meets Eraserhead mashup

This is a bit of a no-brainer for me - OK Computer is still one of my favourite all time albums and David Lynch's Eraserhead is still my favourite bizarrely surreal film.

Jsmash has done a pretty nice job cutting this clip together - I like the tiny jumpcuts in particular. If you haven't seen Eraserhead, check it out - just don't go in expecting the story to make sense, treat it more like an abstract painting and just let yourself experience the feelings it provokes.



Here's a short clip from the film to give you some idea of what to expect - if you're overly squeamish you might give it a miss. I remember reading somewhere that Lynch came up with the idea for the film when he was feeling anxious about the upcoming birth of his first child.



(Oh and if you're a Twin Peaks fan, you might have noticed that Henry is played by Jack Nance, who played Pete Martell in the show)